What's It Like To Open A Venue During A Pandemic? These Melbourne Vendors Tell Us

Opening a new venue is never going to be a stressless process - chuck a global pandemic on top of that and you'd probably be tearing your hair out just at the thought. 

There's no doubting the impact that 2020 had on the arts sector - musicians and comedians lost their already unstable touring income, thousands of live performances were cancelled - and now, with JobKeeper's end looming, the industry faces even more challenges. 

While it's hard to keep a positive outlook of what's to come, despite all odds, Melbourne's ever-resilient arts industry perseveres. 

In a year where venues were closing at a rapid rate, two first-time operators decided to press on - Collingwood's Gum Bar, helmed by musicians Chris Wright (who is also co-owner of Sunset Pig Records) and Jonathan Reisacher, and the CBD's Comedy Republic, the brainchild of comedians Kyran Wheatley, Rhys Nicholson and Alex Dyson - with both venues opening late last year. 

Gum Bar

"After touring the world with stand-up for the better part of a decade Rhys and I were very jealous of all these cities having theatres dedicated to comedy," shares Wheatley. "And after Alex and I had put on a pop-up bar (the terribly named BOB bar… RIP) we thought we maybe had the chops to fix this little oversight. 

"Then I asked good friend Susie Youssef what she thought it should be called, and she said 'Comedy Referenda'. And I said 'do you mean Comedy Republic?' And she said 'what did I say?' And I said 'Comedy Referenda'. And she said, 'Comedy Republic'."  

Gum Bar came about in similar circumstances, with Wright and Reisacher also taking influence from overseas.

"Jono and I were in Berlin for his birthday a couple of years back and we were going to a LOT of small bars while we were there," explains Wright. "Jono and I were both going through a quarter-life crisis at the time so we thought, bugger it, let’s have a crack at a bar when we get home. Three years later, Gum opened..."

Dyson & Wheatley at Comedy Republic

But of course, even the best-laid plans of comedians and musicians often go awry with COVID-19 soon getting in the way of launch plans for both parties. 

"I was standing on the Queenstown Skyline balcony looking out over the majestic New Zealand hills when Kyran called me and told me the Melbourne Comedy Festival was cancelled," says Dyson. "Never has an outlook been so beautiful, and yet also so bleak.

"And honestly, we were far too young, eager and inexperienced to ever consider packing it in, so the decision to continue was actually the easy part. A more seasoned operator probably would have just shut down and waited it out, but for us the next eight months were a constant rebuild, re-think, re-adjust, re-launch with online shows, membership drives, then and eventual November launch with 30 shows in 30 days. Now, a year on, the laughs we get to have in our new beautiful venue have been all the more satisfying for the huge effort and positivity from everyone involved."

"It was a no brainer for us to launch as soon as we were ready," shares Wright. "To be honest, I don’t even think we were ready. As soon as restrictions eased in November last year we set a date. Hell or high water, we were serving beers last year..."

"It’s pretty much exactly what we thought it would be like despite coronavirus restrictions. We’ve never operated a bar in normal times, so this is all we know. No complaints here. It’s great to be open and serving the good people of Melbourne."

After a few months operating, Wheatley describes the experience since opening as "so wonderful".

"The comedians are loving it, the audiences are loving it, and to be honest, after dealing with lockdowns, and JobKeeper, and COVID hotlines and everything, the problems we face now are actually a pleasure," he continues. 

"Like which of the delicious beers our bar crew have selected to try next? Or whether we need to change the names around on the big marquee out the front because we’re worried people will think it’s not Randy AND Geraldine Hickey, but just a randy Geraldine Hickey? It’s been a wonderful vibe, and we’re optimistic this year's Comedy Festival will be massive."

Wright & Reisacher at Gum Bar

Despite both venues successes, the pandemic's effect is still felt.

"I can only speak personally, but it was quite difficult being under lockdown and receiving no government funding at all because we hadn’t officially traded yet," shares Wright when asked if he feels that there's been enough support for venues. 

"I feel for other business owners like us who were working toward an opening mid-2020 and got derailed. It was a challenging time. That being said, here we are, we got through. But we know we’re the lucky ones."

It's a sentiment that Dyson agrees with. 

"The City Of Melbourne has been fantastic, and really supportive of businesses and cultural activities in Melbourne so we are eternally grateful for their help to get through the worst of the pandemic," he says. "They understand how important the arts is.

"On a wider scale, the fact that the arts was the first to fold, will be the last to fully recover, and contributes $50 billion to the Australian economy annually doesn’t seem to have occurred to Canberra. It’s worse for small arts businesses such as ourselves whose employees don’t stand on tippy toes or sing in Italian. 

"The Australia Council actually said this to us on the phone, 'we don’t really do comedy'. But while the Opera has the lion's share of the grants, comedy has something better - the people. And it is with the incredible support of punters that we have made it through, by the skin of our teeth, and are so happy to be putting on shows."

Find out more about Gum Bar here and Comedy Republic here.

Comedy Republic